Eps3.7 dont-delete-me.ko/Summary
In the Washington Township movie theater, February 1995, Edward Alderson tries to get the coughs out of his system as he urges a solemn Elliot to mix M&Ms in their bucket of popcorn. With his arm in a sling, Elliot voices his annoyance at being there, to which his father suggests they see another movie and apologizes once again. Elliot calls him out for being sick but not wanting to admit it. Edward admits his mistake and wishes to be a better father. When asked if he could forgive him, Elliot says no. Edward considers leaving before he starts coughing again, then collapses onto the floor. Elliot puts on his father’s Mr. Robot jacket and goes into a theater as a crowd forms. He takes a seat and shushes someone as the movie begins. Elliot walks into his bathroom and looks at the broken mirror, having bought a new medicine cabinet. It has been three weeks since the attacks, October 21. He reads a Vox article online about evidence linking fsociety to Iran. Trenton and Mobley are being blamed, connected to the arcade, Red Wheelbarrow BBQ, and the Phoenix house. Elliot muses about deletion, clearing unwanted data for space, as he burns his files on Trenton and Mobley onto CDs. He looks at Mobley’s brother’s Facebook page and sees his information before deleting the records from his computer. He breaks down the hardware and microwaves the chip, when Darlene knocks on the door. She questions his “routine” wipe down before urging him to speak to the breaking down Angela. Elliot refuses. When Darlene brings up that Angela was there for him during his troubles, Elliot accepts the label of asshole. Darlene is worried that he hasn’t left his apartment since the attacks and assures him he wasn’t responsible. Elliot says it was him if it was Mr. Robot. He goes on to rant that E Corp will be fine with E Coin while Mr. Robot is doing dandy. Not medication, therapy, or jail can get rid of him, so he must still remain because Elliot likes it. Darlene is scared. Elliot sits beside her and asks for time to cope. Darlene accuses him of giving up and wants to stay with him. Elliot wants to be alone. He plans to smoke up with her tomorrow and watch Careful Massacre. Darlene notes it isn’t Halloween and when Elliot asks since when do they follow rules, she leans her head on his shoulder: “I’d like to.” He puts his arm around her: “Me too.” Elliot leaves Flipper with his landlord for the day. He looks at the dog and thinks about the hesitation of deletion. Elliot takes the Mr. Robot jacket from his closet and thinks about deleting himself and Mr. Robot from the world (as well as the viewer.) He leaves the jacket at a trash burning business. In a bedroom, Elliot wants to buy morphine from a drug dealer named Hard Andy. When he asks for the whole bag, the dealer wants to know how they know each other. Elliot says a referral. Andy wants Elliot to take his shirt and pants off, even though he did a pat down. Andy wonders if Elliot is with the police, looking to resell in the neighborhood, or finds life unbearable. He comes on to Elliot a bit and surmises that Elliot has a death wish. Elliot knocks on the door of Mobley’s brother’s house. The brother says get lost, but Elliot insists on paying respects some place. The brother complains that Mobley has endangered his own job. Elliot says not to believe what is being said. The brother believes the news and refusing to pay for a terrorist’s funeral, shutting the door. A billboard memorializes the 71 Cyber bombings. A military vehicle roams the streets reminding the city of curfew, 9 pm – 4 am. Elliot arrives at Trenton’s house as her father is packing the car, preparing to move. Her father doesn’t want trouble as he sends his family inside. Elliot says he went to school with Trenton and that she was a good person, insisting she was innocent. Her father asks what he knows about why she went to Arizona. He stops his son from eavesdropping and believes her to be a victim of Islamophobia. As Elliot walks away, Trenton’s father thanks him for saying nice things. Elliot takes the subway to Coney Island and sits on the beach alone. As he opens his bag of morphine, Trenton’s brother Mohammed appears and asks about it. Mohammed dismisses the idea of needing his parents or a babysitter, but doesn’t know how to get home as he followed Elliot. He sits down, much to Elliot’s annoyance. Mohammed asks why Elliot said Trenton was innocent, getting no answer. Elliot decides to walk the boy home. Mohammed talks about the mosque he and Trenton went to, telling an anecdote about her tripping. They pass a basketball court turned military detention center. Elliot insists he needs to get back to Coney Island for something important. Mohammed keeps asking questions. At the house, no one answers the door. Mohammed asks more questions, getting a response out of movies. Mohammed has never been to the movies and wants to go. His parents went to go visit his uncle in Connecticut. Elliot wonders if he’s lying, but relents and will take him to see movie if something good is playing. It’s Back to the Future day at the theater. Mohammed doesn’t know what it is and wants to see The Martian. Elliot says the Martian looks like shit and is surprised that his childhood dream to see BTTF 2 on the day Marty goes to the future (Oct 21, 2015) has presented itself. Elliot puts M&Ms in the popcorn, to the initial dismay of the boy. In line, Elliot tries to explain the movie to Mohammed, starting a debate between costumed fans about the intricacies of time travel. Elliot dismisses The Martian’s 92% on Rotten Tomatoes as most critics having shitty taste. During the movie, Elliot’s neighbor asks him to hold his prop as he cleans his glasses. Elliot realizes Mohammed has disappeared. Out by the concessions, Elliot learns from a worker that the boy left. Elliot notices two people leaving, one of them complaining about her shoes. It reminds him of Mohammed’s mosque story about Trenton tripping putting on her shoes. An ice cream truck driven by a Jewish man stops and gives Elliot a ride to the mosque. Elliot notes that the driver is listening to War of the Worlds. He finds it ironic. The driver explains that it actually is about the persevering of humans in the end. Elliot finds Mohammed alone at the mosque. He questions why he bailed and said he would’ve brought him here. Mohammed brings up that Elliot said he has something to do. Elliot wants to bring the boy home. He is urgent. They fight back and forth when Elliot agrees with the child that he wish he were dead. Mohammed wonders if he did something bad to make his sister leave. Elliot consoles him and takes the blame himself. Mohammed tells Elliot to take his shoes off inside. He does and vows not to trip when he puts them back on. Mohammed says he could be President because he was born in the US, unlike the rest of his family. He says if he were President, he would stay in his own house, bring back his sister, put the bad guys in jail, make everyone have Pop Tarts for dinner, and make everyone be nice to him. Elliot calls him a dictator, defining it as a bad president. They discuss Elliot’s birthplace in NJ. Mohammed reveals he was born in Trenton. The duo returns to the Biswas home to find the parents still aren’t home. Mohammed opens the door with a key. He thanks Elliot for taking him to the movies and asks his name. He apologizes for making him late for his important thing. Mohammed asks to see Elliot again, who promises to take him to the Martian before the family moves. Elliot begins to cry while Mohammed gets him a lollipop from inside because he said he was sick. Elliot goes to Mobley’s brother’s house and tells him to give Mobley a funeral. Met with hostility, Elliot reveals he hacked him and threatens him. The morphine he bought from Hard Andy, one of his shady clients, will provide enough funeral money by selling it back to the dealer. Elliot wants an invitation and vows to be in the back of the funeral, listening for a good eulogy. Elliot walks through the red tinted hall outside Angela’s apartment. He knocks and asks to talk, saying he’s worried about her. She remains silent as he goes on about wanting to snap her out of it. He moves to leave, but sits with his back to the door. Elliot reminds her of the wishing game they used to play, as she sits with her back to the door on the other side. They wished for bigger bedrooms, her for more protractors, him for a faster computer, her for better clothes, both for the ability to drive, drive away on road trips. They closed their eyes and wished. Even though they never came true, the ending wasn’t what they cared about, it was the wishing. Angela gets emotional. Elliot didn’t get it back then, but what she said to him right before they opened their eyes made it all better. “No matter what happens, we’ll be okay,” Angela says from behind the door. Elliot returns home when a white van stops outside and dumps the Mr. Robot jacket. He takes it back, thinking that deletion isn’t always permanent. He fixes his bathroom mirror and installs his new drive. In his email, he finds a message from Trenton: a way to undo the hack.